Design or manufacture

[billwald]

You all argue about design but give example of a manufactured product. We can identify a manufactured product by eyeball.

Would an object manufactured by an idiot be "designed?"

Can anyone give an example of a design without referencing a manufactured or natured produced product?

 

[shernren]

What would you mean by something which is designed, but not manufactured? What criteria would it have to be called designed, and what criteria would it lack to not be called manufactured?

 

[gluadys]

You all argue about design but give example of a manufactured product. We can identify a manufactured product by eyeball.

Would an object manufactured by an idiot be "designed?"

Can anyone give an example of a design without referencing a manufactured or natured produced product?

Dembski agrees that an object manufacutured by an idiot is indeed designed. This was in an article he wrote rebutting the argument that design must be optimum design. That presumes something about the designer which ID is careful not to do. ID does not preclude a stupid designer or a wicked designer or a designer constrained (as human designers usually are) by multiple conflicting demands which result in a compromise solution to get the best fit.

ID also avoids the whole question of manufacture. It tries to identify design, but makes no comment at all on how the design is moved from an abstract mental concept into concrete physical existence.

It claims evolutionary processes can't be the manufacturing process, but suggests no other.

IMO this renders ID irrelevant to any scientific discussion.

 

[billwald]

When Whatshisname found the watch on a beach it was obviously manufactured and manufacturing requires at least a mental design. If a DNA segment is analyzed there is no way to tell if it was natural or assembled from parts.